The present invention relates to a printer which is capable of using a selective one of a continuous form and cut sheets with simplified operation, and is simple in construction and low in cost.
A printer for use with a continuous form and cut sheets is publicly known. For instance, a printer disclosed in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 61-241176 is provided with tractors for feeding a continuous form and a set of feed rollers for feeding cut sheets, which are respectively disposed along a sheet feeding path. In this printer, the tractors are retreated from the sheet feeding path when the printer is switched from a mode for printing onto the continuous form to another mode for printing onto the cut sheet. Whereupon, the continuous form is cut off by an operator at its portion which is left on a platen common to both the continuous form printing and the cut sheet printing, or is delivered backward manually. In this respect, if the continuous form is cut off to temporally terminate the continuous form printing for effecting the cut sheet printing, it is necessary to connect to continuous form at its disconnected portion. That is, a laborious task is required. The manual backward delivery operation of the continuous form is also troublesome for the operator. To obviate this, there is proposed a printer which operates to automatically deliver the continuous form backward until a particular sheet delivery position at which the leading end of the continuous form is detected by detecting means disposed in facing relation with the sheet feeding path, when a shift is made from the continuous form printing mode to the cut sheet printing mode (Japanese Provisional Patent Publication Nos. 62-119068 and 63-11369, for instance). However, the printer of this kind requires complicated construction and is thus high-priced.